Author Interviews
04 Feb Younger Generations at Much Higher Risk of Obesity Related Cancers
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_47252" align="alignleft" width="128"] Dr. Sung[/caption]
Hyuna Sung, PHD
Principal Scientist, Surveillance Research
American Cancer Society, Inc.
250 Williams St.
Atlanta, GA 30303
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: This project was motivated by our previous finding on the rise of colorectal cancer among young adults before age 55. Changes in cancer trends among young age group have significant implications because the newly introduced carcinogenic agents are likely to affect trends among young people before they affect those among older people. Owing to this relationship, cancer trends among young people can be often considered as a bellwether for future disease burden. Given the dramatic increase of the obesity prevalence during 3-4 decades in the US, we wanted to expand the colorectal cancer finding to the more comprehensive list of cancers and explain them in the context of obesity epidemic.
04 Feb Absolute Risk Low, but Increased Maternal Morbidity Linked to IVF
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_47256" align="alignleft" width="142"]
Dr. Dayan[/caption]
Natalie Dayan MD MSc FRCPC
General Internal Medicine and Obstetric Medicine,
Clinician-Scientist, Research Institute
Centre for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (CORE)
McGill University Health Centre
Montréal QC
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Infertility treatment is rising in use and has been linked with maternal and perinatal complications in pregnancy, but the extent to which it is associated with severe maternal morbidity (SMM), a composite outcome of public health importance, has been less well studied. In addition, whether the effect is due to treatment or to maternal factors is unclear.
We conducted a propensity matched cohort study in Ontario between 2006 and 2012. We included 11 546 women who had an infertility-treated pregnancy and a singleton live or stillborn delivery beyond 20 weeks. Each woman exposed to infertility treatment was then matched using a propensity score to approximately 5 untreated pregnancies (n=47 553) in order to address confounding by indication. Poisson regression revealed on overall 40% increase in the risk of a composite of SMM (one of 44 previously validated indicators using ICD-10CA codes and CCI procedure codes) (30.3 per 1000 births vs. 22.8 per 1000 births, adjusted relative risk 1.39, 95% CI 1.23-1.56). When stratified according to invasive (eg., IVF) and non-invasive treatments (eg. IUI or pharmacological ovulation induction), women who were treated with IVF had an elevated risk of having any severe maternal morbidity, and of having 3 or more SMM indicators (adjusted odds ratio 2.28, 95% CI 1.56 – 3.33), when compared with untreated women, whereas women who were treated with non-invasive treatments had no increase in these risks.
04 Feb Emergency C-Section Raises Depression Risk For New Moms
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_47285" align="alignleft" width="195"]
Dr. Tonei[/caption]
Valentina Tonei, PhD
British Academy Research Associate
Department of Economics and Related Studies
University of York, UK
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: There has been a growing utilisation of Caesarean sections in the past decades. To put it in a perspective, in the United Kingdom, the caesarean section rate was about 26% in 2015, while in 1990s it was about 12-15%. A similar increase has been observed in other countries, for example in the USA. So, while this study focuses on the United Kingdom, I believe that the evidence from this research can apply also to other countries.
I study the health consequences for mothers who give birth through an emergency caesarean. Thanks to previous studies, we are well-aware of the implications for mothers’ physical health; instead, this research sheds light on the impact on new mothers’ mental health. I find that new mothers who have an emergency caesarean delivery are at higher risk of developing postnatal depression in the first 9 months after the delivery.
03 Feb Screen Time Effects on Child Development
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_47176" align="alignleft" width="178"] Dr. Madigan[/caption]
Sheri Madigan, Ph.D, R.Psych
Canada Research Chair in Determinants of Child Development
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology
Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute
University of Calgary
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Parents are reporting that screen time is one of their major concerns, so we wanted to find out more about how large of a role screen time was playing on children’s developmental outcomes. We were especially interested in the long-term impact of screens, which is why we followed children over time, from ages 2 to 5 and repeatedly assessed both screen time use and children’s achievement of developmental milestones.
There are three main findings:
- Our study revealed that on average children were viewing screens for 2.4, 3.6 and 1.6 hours per day at two, three and five years of age, respectively. This means that the majority of the participants in our sample are exceeding the American Academy of Pediatrics’ guideline.
- We found statistically significant, albeit small effects suggesting that greater amounts of screen time at two and three years predict poorer child outcomes at three and five years, respectively. Thus, screen time has a lasting influence on children’s development.
- The opposite pattern was not observed. That is, we did not find evidence that children showing poor performance in terms of achieving developmental milestones were more likely to be place in front of screens to help cope with their potentially challenging behaviors.
02 Feb Policies Reducing Prescription Opioids Have Limited Effect on Overdose Deaths
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Dr. Qiushi Chen (first author) and
Jagpreet Chhatwal PhD
Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School
Senior Scientist, Institute for Technology Assessment
Massachusetts General Hospital
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Opioid overdose epidemic is a national public health emergency — in 2017, more than 49,000 people died from overdose. Our study shows that under current conditions, the number of deaths is projected to increase to 81,700 by 2025. Efforts to curb the epidemic by reducing the incidence of prescription opioid misuse — the primary focus of current interventions — will have a modest effect of 3-5% reduction in overdose deaths.
02 Feb Knee Implants: Electrical Energy Harvested From Walking Can Power Sensors
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_47270" align="alignleft" width="160"] Prof. Towfighian[/caption]
Professor Sherry Towfighian PhD
Mechanical Engineering
Binghamton University
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: We wanted to avoid using batteries in a load monitor that can be placed in total knee replacement. We looked into energy scavenging technologies and studied the most appropriate one for this application. Energy scavenging is converting wasted energy such as walking to electricity for low power sensors.
Our research study showed walking can provide enough electrical energy (about 6 microwatts) for low power load sensors. These load sensors are important in providing information about the mechanical load throughout different activities. It can be used in the future to create a self -awareness device for the patient to avoid certain activities.
01 Feb Prions from Brain Detectable in Skin Earlier Than Brain Damage
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_47172" align="alignleft" width="167"] Dr. Wen Quan Zou[/caption]
Wenquan Zou, MD, PhD
Associate Professor
Departments of Pathology and Neurology
Director of CJD Skin Project
Associate Director
National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center
Institute of Pathology
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Cleveland, Ohio 44106
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Would you briefly explain the significance of prion-induced diseases and why they have been difficult to diagnosis?
Response: Our previous study has demonstrated that infectious prions are detectable in the skin samples of patients with sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD), the most common form of human prion disease, at the terminal stage by the highly sensitive real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) assay and animal-based bioassay.
The prion-induced diseases are significant because they are infectious diseases that can be transmitted inter-species and intra-species. For instance, mad cow disease, a prion disease in cattle, has been documented to transmit to humans. Currently, there are no cures for these fatal diseases.
The definite diagnosis of prion diseases is difficult because it mainly depends on the availability of brain tissues obtained either by biopsy or autopsy for detection of prions. Brain biopsy is highly invasive and it is difficult to be accepted by patients and their families. Even for brain autopsy, it is not always feasible because of religious and cultural limitations in some regions or countries.
01 Feb Validation of MEESSI Score for Acute Heart Failure Risk
The MEESSI Score seems to be a highly promising tool for stratifying patients presenting to the emergency department with acute heart failure according to their risk. ...
01 Feb Primary Care Settings Offer Opportunity for Wider Screening for Diabetic Retinopathy
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_47260" align="alignleft" width="106"] Dr. Gibson[/caption]
Diane M. Gibson, Ph.D.
Executive Director – New York Federal Statistical Research Data Center, Baruch RDC
Associate Professor – Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, Baruch College - CUNY
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Prior studies have found that screening for diabetic retinopathy in primary care settings using telemedicine increased screening rates among individuals with diabetes and among subgroups of individuals with diabetes who are at high risk of missing recommended eye exams. In a previous paper I looked at how often U.S. adults with diabetes visited primary care and eye care providers for recommended diabetes preventive care services using a sample from the 2007-2013 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. I found that while visits to eye care providers were often skipped, most adults with diabetes did visit primary care physicians. I argued that these findings suggest that screening for diabetic retinopathy in primary care settings using telemedicine has the potential to fulfill unmet needs and reach most U.S. adults with diabetes.
My brief report in JAMA Ophthalmology examines patterns of eye examination receipt and visits to primary care physicians among U.S. adults with diabetes using a sample from the 2016 National Health Interview Survey. The report pays particular attention to individuals who are at high-risk of missing recommended eye exams.
The study found that 87.7% of the sample of adults with diabetes visited a primary care physician in the past year and that, except for the uninsured subgroup, more than 78% of each high-risk subgroup visited a primary care provider in the past year.
31 Jan Polygenic Risk Scores Linked to Intelligence, ADHD and Brain Findings
Posted at 18:12h
in ADHD, Author Interviews, Genetic Research, Mental Health Research, Pediatrics, Schizophrenia
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_47246" align="alignleft" width="225"] Dr. Alemany[/caption]
Silvia Alemany, PhD first author
Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by "la Caixa".
In collaboration with co-authors:
Philip Jansen,MD, MSc and
Tonya White, MD, PhD
Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Individuals affected by psychiatric disorders can demonstrate morphological brain abnormalities when compared to healthy controls. Although both genetic and environmental factors can account for these brain abnormalities, we expect that genetic susceptibility for psychiatric disorders has the greatest influence on the development of the brain.
Genetic susceptibility for psychiatric disorders can be estimated at the individual level by generating polygenic risk scores. Using this methodology, genetic susceptibility to psychiatric disorders and cognition has been associated with behavior problems in childhood. These findings suggest that heritable neurobiological mechanisms are at play in very early in the course of the illnesses.
31 Jan Caring for Sick Family Members Exacerbates Burnout in Female Physicians
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_47241" align="alignleft" width="142"] Dr. Mangurian[/caption]
Christina Mangurian, MD MAS
Professor
Department of Psychiatry, Weill Institute for Neurosciences
Center for Vulnerable Populations,
University of California, San Francisco
[caption id="attachment_47238" align="alignleft" width="150"]
Dr. Yank[/caption]
Veronica Yank, MD
Assistant Professor
Division of General Internal Medicine
Department of Medicine
University of California
San Francisco
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: This article is about the behavioral health and burnout consequences among physician mothers who are caring for seriously ill loved ones. Our work was inspired, in part, by some of the authors’ own experiences caring for loved ones with serious illnesses while also being physician mothers themselves. We sought to determine the proportion of physician mothers with such caregiving responsibilities beyond their patients and children and the how these additional responsibilities affected the women’s health and practice.
30 Jan Endurance Athletes May Have More Coronary Artery Calcification But No Greater Risk
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_47217" align="alignleft" width="132"] Dr. DeFina[/caption]
Laura DeFina, MD
President and Chief Executive Officer
Chief Science Officer
The Cooper Institute
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Several studies suggest that endurance athletes may be at higher risk for asymptomatic hardening of the coronary arteries. These studies, however, have been done on small numbers of endurance athletes (ie – marathon runners) and do not show whether this increase in hardening actually leads to increase in heart attacks or death of cardiovascular disease.
In our population of 21,758 generally healthy individuals (average age 52 years) who presented for a preventive medicine examination, we were able to evaluate for the presence of hardening and cardiovascular events in individuals who exercised high volumes (≥3000 MET·minutes/week or comparable to running 6 miles/hour for an hour 5 days a week) versus those exercising less.
30 Jan Free Food at Work Often Not of the Healthy Variety
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_47228" align="alignleft" width="225"]
Dr. Stephen Onufrak[/caption]
Stephen Onufrak, PhD
Epidemiologist, Obesity Prevention and Control Branch
Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Atlanta, GA
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: With more than 150 million working adults in the United States, workplaces represent a far reaching setting for chronic disease prevention and health promotion. While research suggests that workplace wellness efforts can be effective at changing health behaviors, little is known about the foods that people acquire at work.
In this study, we used data from the US Department of Agriculture Food Acquisition and Purchasing Survey (FoodAPS) to investigate workplace food acquisitions among employed adults during a 7 day study period. The foods we examined included those purchased in places like cafeterias and vending machines as well as those acquired for free at meetings, social events, common areas, or shared by coworkers. They did not include foods brought from home by someone to eat at work themselves or food acquired by the employee at offsite restaurants.
30 Jan Antioxidants May Enhance Efficacy of Chemotherapy on Glioblastoma
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_47225" align="alignleft" width="166"] Dr. Litofsky[/caption]
Dr. Scott Litofsky, MD
Division of Neurological Surgery
University of Missouri-Columbia School of Medicine
Columbia, MO 65212
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Many patients take over-the-counter medications to held their cancers. Some of these remedies may be helpful; others are potentially harmful. Anti-oxidant medications are frequently selected by patients as they are inexpensive and available.
We were approached by a high school student, Macy Williams (one of the authors) to do some research in our laboratory when she won a research scholarship (the 2016 Emperor Science Award) from Stand Up to Cancer. She worked with us several times per week doing experiments during her senior year of high school. When she graduated, we continued the work that she started.
We studied effects of Vitamin D3, Melatonin, and alpha-Lipoic Acid on glioblastoma cells, a highly malignant brain tumor. We included experiments of these agents alone and in combination with Temozolomide, a chemotherapy agent used as standard of care in glioblastoma. The work was done in cultured cells, measuring growth and survival of cells. We used concentrations that could be achieved by oral intake of the drugs.
We found that antioxidant medications, particularly alpha Lipoic Acid, had synergistic effects with Temozolomide – that is Temozolomide impair glioblastoma cell growth and survival better when combined with an antioxidant. The mechanism of action may be through reactive oxygen species.
30 Jan Could Keloids Suggest Increased Risk of Breast Cancer?
Keloid status of an individual may be indicative of a risk to be diagnosed with early-onset, late staged breast cancer....
29 Jan Not All Hospital Readmissions Are Preventable but READI Protocol Can Assist in Some Cases
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_47212" align="alignleft" width="150"] Dr. Weiss[/caption]
Marianne Weiss DNSc RN
READI study Principal Investigator
Professor of Nursing and
Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare / Sister Rosalie Klein Professor of Women’s Health
Marquette University College of Nursing
Milwaukee Wi, 53201-1881
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Our team of researchers has been studying the association of patient readiness for discharge and readmission for several years. We have previously documented that patients who had ‘low readiness’ on our Readiness for Hospital Discharge Scale were more likely to be readmitted. In this study we added structured protocols for discharge readiness assessment and nurse actions to usual discharge care practices to determine the optimal protocol configuration to achieve improved post-discharge utilization outcomes.
In our primary analysis that included patients from a broad range of patient diagnoses, we did not find a significant effect on readmission from adding any of the discharge readiness assessment protocols. The patient sample came from Magnet hospitals, known for high quality care, and the average all-cause readmission rates were low (11.3%).
In patients discharged from high-readmission units (>11.3%), one of the protocols was effective in reducing the likelihood of readmission. In this protocol, the nurse obtained the patients self-report of discharge readiness to inform the nurse’s discharge readiness assessment and actions in finalizing preparations for discharge. This patient-informed discharge readiness assessment protocol produced a nearly 2 percentage point reduction in readmissions. Not unexpectedly, in lower readmission settings, we did not see a reduction in readmission; not all readmissions are preventable.
In the last phase of study, we informed nurses of a cut-off score for ‘low readiness’ and added a prescription for nurse action only in cases of ‘low readiness’; this addition to the protocol added burden to the nurses’ daily work and eliminated the beneficial effects, perhaps because it limited the nurse’s attention to only a subset of patients.
29 Jan First Blood Test To Predict Lung Transplant Rejection
Posted at 16:45h
in Author Interviews, Biomarkers, Johns Hopkins, NIH, Pulmonary Disease, Transplantation
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_47206" align="alignleft" width="142"] Dr. Agbor-Enoh[/caption]
Sean Agbor-Enoh, M.D., Ph.D.
Co-Director/Staff Clinician
Laboratory of Transplantation Genomics
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
National Institutes of Health
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: People who receive organ transplants may develop acute or chronic rejection, in which the body’s immune system attacks the transplanted organ. While acute rejection is treatable and reversible, chronic rejection is not and remains the most common cause for organ transplant loss. Lung transplant recipients have the shortest survival rates among patients who get solid organ transplantation of any kind—only about half live past five years. This poor survival rate among lung transplant recipients is due in part to a high incidence of chronic rejection. Existing tools for detecting signs of rejection, such as biopsy, either require the removal of small amounts of lung tissue or are not sensitive enough to discern the severity of the rejection.
Building upon earlier work, our research team developed a simple blood test that can detect when a newly transplanted lung is being rejected by a patient, even when no outward signs of the rejection are evident. The test could make it possible for doctors to intervene faster to prevent or slow down so-called chronic rejection—which is severe, irreversible, and often deadly—in those first critical months after lung transplantation. This same test might also be useful for monitoring rejection in other types of organ transplants.
Called the donor-derived cell-free DNA test, the experimental test begins with obtaining a few blood droplets taken from the arm of the transplant recipient. A special set of machines then sorts the DNA fragments in the blood sample, and in combination with computer analysis, determines whether the fragments are from the recipient or the donor and how many of each type are present. Because injured or dying cells from the donor release lots of donor DNA fragments into the bloodstream compared to normal donor cells, higher amounts of donor DNA indicate a higher risk for transplant rejection in the recipient.
29 Jan Venezuela: Rapid Rise in Infant Mortality Linked to Health Care System Collapse
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Ms Jenny García, PhD candidate
Institut National d’Études Démographiques INED
Institut de Démographie de l'université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne IDUP
Paris, France
Prof Gerardo Correa, MSc
Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales IIES
Universidad Católica Andrés Bello UCAB
Caracas, Venezuela
Prof Brenda Rousset, PhD
Departamento de Estadística, Escuela de Sociología (FaCES)
Universidad Central de Venezuela UCV
Caracas, Venezuela
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Venezuela, as many countries in Latin America, showed substantial improvements in infant mortality rates during the last 60 years. However, the decreasing pattern might be reversing. Recent socioeconomic and political events have led to a collapse in living standards, along with a breakdown of the health system. At the same time, a strict secrecy policy has ruled public institutions, and since 2013 the Venezuelan government stopped publishing mortality statistics.
This study attempts to fill this gap and estimate infant mortality using hospital and census data after 2013.
The main finding is that infant mortality rates in Venezuela may have stopped decreasing and started increasing in 2009 – around the time funding for the Venezuelan health system started to be substantially reduced. By 2016, the infant mortality rate was 21.1 deaths per 1000 live births, which is 1.4 times the rate in 2008 (15.0 deaths per 1000 live births), and equivalent to the rate recorded in the late 1990s, meaning 18 years of progress may have been lost.
28 Jan Primary Care Doctor Visit After Discharge Reduced Hospital Readmission Rates
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dawn Wiest, PhD
Director, Action Research & Evaluation
Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Understanding the role of care transitions after hospitalization in reducing avoidable readmissions, the Camden Coalition launched the 7-Day Pledge in 2014 in partnership with primary care practices in Camden, NJ to address patient and provider barriers to timely post-discharge primary care follow-up. To evaluate whether our program was associated with lower hospital readmissions, we used all-payer hospital claims data from five regional health systems. We compared readmissions for patients who had a primary care follow-up within seven days with similar patients who had a later or no follow-up using propensity score matching.
28 Jan How Does the Medicaid Rebate Cap Affect Brand-Name Drug Prices?
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_47034" align="alignleft" width="200"] Sean Dickson, JD MPH[/caption]
Sean Dickson, JD MPH
Officer, Drug Spending Research Initiative
The Pew Charitable Trusts
Washington, DC 20004
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Price increases on existing drugs are an ongoing challenge for patients and insurers, including government programs like Medicaid and Medicare. The Medicaid program requires drug manufacturers to provide a rebate that offsets price increases greater than inflation, but that rebate is capped once price increases exceed 433 percent above inflation.
When these rebates are capped, manufacturers may find it more profitable to take very large price increases, raising costs for all payers. The Medicaid program has proposed removing the cap, and this study considers the effects of that proposal.
28 Jan Going to Bed Right After Dinner May Raise Diabetes Risk
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Chiyori Haga, R.N. P.H.N Ph.D Department of Community Nursing Graduate School of Health Science Okayama University in Japan MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: In Japan, we have a health checkup system for middle and elderly people to prevent their non-communicable diseases (NCDs) including the Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) and give them some health guidance based a guideline. The guideline has suggested that short duration between bed time and dinner time will be a risk factor of metabolic syndrome or diabetes mellitus for some duration. However, there may be no association between them, it is the main findings.
28 Jan Shorter Casting Period May Be Sufficient For Many Ankle Fractures
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_47181" align="alignleft" width="200"] Dr. Kortekangas[/caption]
Tero Kortekangas, MD, PhD
Orthopaedic trauma surgeon
Oulu University Hospital
Oulu, Finland
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Isolated, stable, Weber B type fibula fracture is by far the most common type of ankle fracture. Traditionally these fractures are treated with below the knee cast for six weeks. Although the clinical outcome of this treatment strategy has been shown to be generally favourable, prolonged cast immobilisation is associated with increased risk of adverse effects, prompting attempts to streamline the treatment. However, perhaps because of absence of high quality evidence on the effectiveness and safety of more simple non-operative treatment strategies, the current tenet of six weeks of cast immobilisation still remains the “gold standard” treatment of stable Weber B type fractures.
27 Jan Link Between Thyroid Function Genetics and Atrial Fibrillation Grows
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_47159" align="alignleft" width="150"] Dr. Salem[/caption]
Joe-Elie Salem, MD, PhD
Associate Professor - MCU-PH, Sorbonne Université - INSERM - CIC, Clinical Pharmacology, Cardio-oncology, APHP, La Pitié-Salpêtrière, Paris, France
Adjunct Associate Professor, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Cardio-oncology
Clinical Pharmacology, Nashville, TN
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: A study by researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center has strengthened the link between thyroid function and atrial fibrillation (AF), an irregular heart rhythm that increases the risk of stroke and other heart-related complications.
They phenome-wide association study scanned the medical records of more than 37,000 people for an association between genetically determined variation in thyroid stimulating hormone levels (a measure of thyroid function) and AF risk.
Previous observational studies have found that subclinical hyperthyroidism, an overactive thyroid which does not meet the clinical threshold for diagnosis or treatment, nevertheless can increase the risk of atrial fibrillation. But whether to treat subclinical hypo- or hyperthyroidism to reduce AF risk remains a matter of debate in the medical community.
27 Jan Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy as Potential Therapy for Alzheimer’s Dementia
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_47164" align="alignleft" width="141"] Dr. Harch[/caption]
Dr. Paul Harch MD
Clinical Professor and Director of Hyperbaric Medicine
LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: The background is a 30 year clinical experience and investigation in which I explored the effects of low-pressure hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) on acute, subacute, and chronic neurological conditions.
Beginning with brain-injured Louisiana boxers and commercial divers in the late 1980s I attempted to see if patients with central nervous system disorders could respond to a lower dosing of the drug hyperbaric oxygen therapy than was traditionally used for other wound conditions like diabetic foot wounds, radiation wounds, and decompression sickness (the "bends"). I was successful with the very first cases after which I expanded this treatment to nearly 90 neurological conditions. The very first patient was a boxer 23 years after his last bout who was formally diagnosed with dementia pugulistica (dementia from boxing).
Since that time I have treated over 100 patients with cognitive decline or dementia, including 11 Alzheimer's cases. Nearly all of the Alzheimer's and other dementia cases were documented with high-resolution brain blood flow imaging (SPECT). The present case report was the first Alzheimer's case that I was able to document with PET metabolic imaging.
25 Jan Female Radiation Oncologists Less Likely to Receive Industry Payments
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_47094" align="alignleft" width="200"] Dr. Raldow[/caption]
Dr. Ann Raldow MD MPH
Assistant Professor
Department of Radiation Oncology
David Geffen School of Medicine
UCLA
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Similar to women in other historically male-dominated fields, female radiation oncologists face unique obstacles in achieving many metrics of career success, including equal salary, research funding, and academic promotion. Our study of industry payments found that female radiation oncologists were less likely than their male colleagues to receive payments from industry and that these payments tended to be of smaller monetary value.
25 Jan Rocking Encourages Deeper Sleep and Better Memory
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Mme Aurore Perrault, PhD Student
Department of Neuroscience, Faculty of Medicine
University of Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: We naturally rock babies to sleep. Yet, we also have plenty of anecdotal reports of adults falling asleep faster when in a train or a car, as well as a feeling of relaxation in a hammock. Our companion paper on mice (Kompotis et a., 2019 – same issue in Current Biology) clearly established that the beneficial effects of rocking on sleep relied on the activation of the vestibular system and might thus suggest some shared neurophysiological mechanisms in mammals.
25 Jan Blood Pressure Control – Good for Heart, Good for the Brain!
Posted at 22:43h
in Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews, Blood Pressure - Hypertension, Cognitive Issues, JAMA
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_47146" align="alignleft" width="153"] Dr. Williamson[/caption]
Jeff D. Williamson, MD
Geriatric Medicine - Sticht Center
Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: A growing amount of epidemiologic research has suggested that higher blood pressure is associated with higher risk for dementia, including Alzheimer’s dementia.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings?
Response: More than 9,300 ambulatory, community dwelling persons over age 50, 30% of whom were over the age of 75, were randomly assigned to a blood pressure goal of 120 vs 140. Persons in the 120 group had a 19% lower risk for developing MCI an transitional stage between normal and dementia (P<.008). There was a 17% lower risk for developing dementia but this only achieved a p value = 0.10. The combined risk for both MCI and dementia was 15% lower in the 120 group (p<0.04). The dementia outcome was the primary outcome but all the outcomes were pre-specified in the protocol at the beginning of the trial. Unfortunately the blood pressure intervention was stopped after only 3.3 years due to CVD and mortality benefit and this may well have influenced the ability to reach the expected number of dementia cases.
25 Jan Respiratory Microbiome Linked to Susceptibility to Flu
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_47142" align="alignleft" width="135"] Dr. Foxman[/caption]
Betsy Foxman PhD
Hunein F. and Hilda Maassab Endowed Professor of Epidemiology
Director, Center for Molecular and Clinical Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2029
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Influenza is a major cause of human illness and death worldwide. Vaccines are the best available means of prevention. However, vaccine effectiveness has been low to moderate in recent years and coverage remains low in many countries.
There is increasing evidence suggesting the microbiome plays an important role in shaping host immunity and may be a potential target for reducing disease. In our study, we used a household transmission study to explore whether the respiratory microbiome was associated with influenza susceptibility.
25 Jan Self Sampling for Cervical HPV: Useful Screening Tool
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_47138" align="alignleft" width="151"] Prof. Berkhof[/caption]
Prof. J. (Hans) Berkhof PhD
Vrije Universiteit
Amsterdam
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: In most countries, the Pap test is used for cervical cancer screening but recently several countries have switched from Pap testing to HPV testing.
Like the Pap test, the HPV test requires a cervical sample to be taken by a clinician. Vaginal self-sampling is also used, but only in underscreened women. We know that self-sampling increases screening participation in underscreened women and it is likely that many women that attend screening also prefer self-sampling if it had been offered to them.
We studied whether an HPV self-sampling test is an accurate alternative to a regular HPV test in women invited for routine screening. We randomized about 14,000 women, invited for screening, to self-sampling or clinician-sampling. Women with a positive HPV test result also received the other HPV test.
We found that the HPV self-sampling test yielded similar performance as the regular HPV test for detection of cervical pre-cancerous lesions (CIN3 and CIN2).